Apple’s new iPad 3 has caused a rash of iPad 2 owners to mercilessly ditch their faithful old tablet in exchange for cash to put towards its usurper.

According to one such trade-in site, 324 per cent more tablets were resold during March (to date) than during the average month.

The most popular tablet to trade-in is the iPad, taking 79 per cent of SellMyMobile’s resales, followed by the BlackBerry PlayBook (10 per cent) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab range (8 per cent).

Need for speed

SellMyMobile’s MD Keir McConomy says this rise in tablet recycling is down to the super rapid product release cycle:

“With so many new tablets coming on to the market, it can be frustrating when you fork out for a new device only for a better model to launch a few months later.

“That’s why we are seeing a new trend of tech-hungry consumers trading-in their old models and putting the money towards the latest device, which explains why there has been such a spike in iPad sales ahead of the new iPad launch.”

If you’re looking to offload an old iPad before investing in the new iPad or the iPad 3 or whatever monicker you choose to bestow upon it, SellMyMobile will give you around £240 for the iPad 2 16GB Wi-Fi only model, all the way up to £315 for the iPad 2 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G.

It’s always worth shopping around though – generally you’ll get a bit more for your used gadgets on eBay (although the admin trade-off is a bit of a pain).